The Chinese Ministry of Agriculture recently released a list of pesticide products that will be granted registration, of which Hubei Sowa Fine Chemical Co., Ltd. will receive registration for distributing its 97% pyraclonil technical and 2% pyraclonil GR, for the control of weeds in transplanted paddy rice fields. It is also the first pyraclonil product registered in China.
 
Pyraclonil was discovered by Hoechst Schering (now Bayer) and developed by KyoyuAgri. Formulation development has been participated in by Mitsui Chemicals, SDS Biotech K.K., Nihon Nohyaku, Sumitomo Chemical, Nissan Chemical, and ISK.
 
Pyraclonil is a protoporphyrinogen oxidase inhibitor with broad spectrum activity to control grass and broad leaf weeds. The product also provides control of sulfonylurea resistant weeds, which contributed to its fast growth in worldwide sales.
 
At present, pyraclonil mixture products includes Sunshine (with benzobicyclon), Get-Star (with tefuryltrione), Comet (with tefuryltrione and metazosulfuron), Ginga (with daimuron and metazosulfuron), SiriusExa (with pyrazosulfuron, oxaziclomefone and benzobicyclon), and IpponD (with bensulfuron-methyl, bromobutide and daimuron).
 
Global sales of pyraclonil in 2014 reached $ 90 million, which ranked 6 on the list of top 10 herbicides for paddy rice. Currently, pyraclonil has become the leading herbicide in Japan’s paddy rice herbicide market.